Leaders: we want you!

It strikes me that our world wants to typecast the personality of a leader. This also seems to be happening in the Christian world. Men are expected be a certain personality type in order to be a great Christian leader. We need to be more masculine, more assertive, more confident, more successful, more eloquent, smarter, faster, better looking. More like guys like Mark Driscoll (who no doubt is a very gifted leader). Whilst it is great to hold up great Christan leaders as role models it may be cripple blokes in their leadership if we keep holding up the alpha male as the ultimate leader. Is it even biblical?

Last night we had a men's night with church and looked at the qualities of a leader from 1 Tim 3.

1Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5(If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?) 6He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

8Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. 9They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. 10They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

11In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

I made three points:

1. Leaders are godly - God doesn't typecast our personality but he certainly tells us what our character is to be like.

2. Leaders lead at home - your family life will give you the most accurate picture of how you’re going as a leader.

3. Leaders are mature - however long we’ve been Christians we need to be men who are committed to Christian maturity.

What is beautiful?

Saw this video on Justin Moffat's blog. John Piper speaks, only as Piper does, about the prosperity gospel. Warning: pretty confronting and not easy to swallow plus a very sad story about half way through the video.

What do you think about Pipers take on prosperity?

Caricatures of discipleship

Caricature: a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect.

When people draw a caricature of someone they generally take a standout feature about them – good or bad – and accentuate it until even if it was a good feature it’s no longer a good feature because you can’t think about it in anyway other than the caricature now.

Got me thinking about what the world sees in us. What do you reckon the world would draw if they wanted to draw a caricature of a Christian?

Tonight I preached on Luke 6:17-49. I reckon if an unbeliever knows any bit of the Bible, Luke 6 is the bit they know. They know that a Christian is to love their enemies. They know that Christians are called by Jesus not to judge people. But my guess is if asked to draw a caricature of a Christian they wouldn’t draw someone who is loving and non-judgmental but they’d draw the exact opposite - an unloving, judgmental, narrow minded, goody two shoes who looks down their noses on people, and who don’t really take the words of Jesus seriously.

How would they draw you? How would the person you share an office with, or a work site with, or a house with draw you? How would people draw your church? What would be the most obvious stand out feature about us they would want to accentuate. Good or bad!??

Have a read of Luke 6:17-49 and be challenged by Jesus demands for the kingdom person.

No points for guessing who this is. 100 points for guessing who drew it.

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Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

What do you think of Facebook? Is it useful or just a time waster?

New Technology brings us "New Days"

Isn't technology tops. Because of You Tube we can very quickly and simply see what our brothers and sisters are up to on the other side of the world... say hi to Jason, Paula and the boys who i went to college with.

Infectious mononucleosis

On Friday night Prue was diagnosed with Infectious mononucleosis, AKA Glandular Fever or the "kissing disease". So she has been hanging out on the couch pretty much all day everyday for the past 4 days. I agreed 'in sickness and in health' and this is my first real dose of 'in sickness'. Apparently it can take 3-4 weeks to get over in most cases and in a small percentage of cases it can linger on longer. If you are the praying type please pray for Prue's health, that she would have a speedy recovery to full health.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James 5